Preternatural: Halflings
by RedKahn
Summary: The first installment of this "spin-off" series takes place 8 years after episode 5.06 and follows a newly adult Jesse Turner on his various misadventures as he fights to avoid becoming the monster he was created to be. OMC/OFC Slightly AU. Please review!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Jesse Turner's story always intrigued me. What happened after the end of that episode? How well does he cope with living on his own at that young age? Does he rise above the dark parts of his nature? Will he ever see the Winchesters again? These questions and more I will attempt to explore in what I plan to be a multi-part spin-off series. First fanfic, so bear with me please, and I hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I own no part of Supernatural, but I will lay claim to the OCs which will be introduced later.

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><p>Preternatural Episode One<p>

"Halflings"

I

_This is my life,_ thought Jesse Turner as he gathered his meager belongings and exited the Greyhound, entering into the pale light and crisp air of a San Franciscan morning. He shrugged on a brown bomber jacket to protect himself against the chill and headed to the station's bathroom.

Jesse had been on the road for several hours, traveling through the night to get here, but now that he had arrived, he hadn't a clue as to his next move. He'd had to leave Los Angeles in a hurry. His pursuers had been very diligent in their attempts to find him.

He walked to the grimy bathroom mirror and turned the faucet on, splashing his face with the lukewarm water to divest the fatigue which threatened to swamp him. He stared at his reflection and saw a slightly disheveled youth with mussed hair the color of jet, and perpetually troubled green eyes set under dark eyebrows.

The overhead fluorescent flickered twice, strobing the room with the harsh light. He stared at it for a moment, seemingly waiting for something before directing his attention back to himself. A sigh slipped past his lips as he swiped a hand across his stubble. He reached into his pack and began sifting through it for a towel to dry his face with.

The bathroom door opened. Retrieving the towel and rubbing it across his face a few times he opened his eyes and noticed a man standing about five feet behind him and to his left using the urinal. Jesse ran a wet hand backwards through his hair before drying them both off.

Once the man had finished he came to stand on Jesse's right side, and began to wash his hands. As the man put his hands under the spray he glanced over at Jesse who put his belongings back into his pack, getting ready to depart. "You coming to visit family here, son?" The stranger shut off the faucet, grabbed a few paper towels from the dispenser and began drying his hands off.

Jesse stopped and looked at the man, staring calmly into his eyes. The man was a normal middle aged fatherly type. The prying sort. "No." Jesse replied shortly.

He had long since gotten past feeling guilty for his abrasive personality. It had served him well for years. Having said all he'd intended to, Jesse began to move around him. As he made his way past, the stranger threw the paper towels away and turned to face Jesse, getting in his way.

"Forgive me that was rude. I forgot that you don't have any. Tired of running yet, Jesse?" Asked the stranger, a dark, knowing smile on his fatherly face. The overhead light flickered once more and Jesse could sense a _wrongness_ billowing off of the man in waves of menace. As he looked on, the strange man's eyes blackened to oily pits of nothingness.

Jesse met the thing's soulless gaze impassively. They tracked him down from time to time, even though they couldn't sense his aura, as he could theirs. But they hadn't once been able to sway or capture him.

"Not really. I'm pretty good at it. How many times will it take before you get it? It's not going to happen."

The demon chuckled menacingly. "Oh, I don't know Jess…we can be pretty persuasive. Remember Ohio?" The demon cocked its head to the side, still blocking Jesse's path to the door.

For the first time Jesse's expression darkened with anger. The overhead lights began flickering more frequently, and the room darkened noticeably. _Control yourself…don't let anything bleed through…_He coached himself through a preternatural fury, narrowly escaping the fit of rage threatening to consume him.

He said nothing, he didn't trust his voice just yet, but could not help clenching his fists in frustration. He shrugged his shoulder and his pack slid, dropping to the floor with a loud slap.

The demon eyed his fist with interest, and looked again into Jesse's eyes which glinted with barely contained hatred. Its mouth twisted in perverse amusement. "Getting better at controlling ourselves are we? But come on, you have to feel a little bad for that poor, sweet girl we raped to death…what was her name? Tess, Tessa maybe? No, that wasn't it…"

The demon paused for thought, and then shrugged. "The name escapes me. Such a nice girl, and what a set of lungs! I bet she had a beautiful voice when she wasn't hoarsely screaming and begging for her life…" it said, chuckling.

As Jesse began to shake with anger, the demon continued, "And then there's your adoptive parents…shame what happened to them."

Jesse's hand snapped out unbidden. The demon shot backwards, careening away from the boy and impacting the wall with a sickening crunch and the sound of shattering tile. The pieces of displaced tile clattered over the floor beneath it. The thing grunted as it hit, and was flattened against the wall as Jesse slowly advanced, hand outstretched, with a murderous gleam in his eye. The demon laughed easily, relatively unhurt by the sudden telekinetic assault.

"It's funny how people keep dying around you, isn't it? You're a plague Jesse. Wherever you go, no matter how far you run, death will follow."

Jesse raised his clenched fist, enraged by the taunt. The demonic laughter was promptly replaced with coughing and spluttering. He kept this up for several seconds before stopping, wary of killing the demon's host. He allowed his hands to fall to his side, but his captive remained plastered tightly to the wall.

The demon spoke once more, its mouth reddened with flecks of blood. "Feels good doesn't it Jesse…you want to hurt me, kill me…you have it in you. Why don't you just let go? Then all the pain will go away..."

And he did. The need to hurt, to kill this thing burned like a furnace inside his chest, his heart pumped malice into his veins with each beat. The room trembled as Jesse raised his hand to blot the creature and its doomed host out of existence. The sounds of shaking and rattling filled the small space.

Even as the dark force inside him gathered strength, Jesse knew that he stood at a precipice, that what he did here would mark him from then on. Beyond it laid godlike power, enough to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, to whomever he wanted. He wouldn't have to run. He'd be the thing to run from.

He felt it like the worst addiction; anticipation filled his every fiber with an excited thrum. But memories rose up from his subconscious, swamping him. They were visceral, all consuming…

He was back in his childhood home. His birth mother had come to his house, possessed with a demon. He saw the room as it had been back then: dim, full of the dark energy of the thing wearing his mother. The Winchesters were spread eagled on the wall across from him, every bit as helpless as the demon before him now. He heard his ten year old self say,

"_She said I was half demon. Is that true?"_

The larger of the two brothers then told Jesse something that would stay with him always.

"_Yes. But you're half human, too. You can do the right thing. You've got choices, Jesse. But if you make the wrong ones, it'll haunt you for the rest of your life."_

Jesse took a slow, deep breath and let it out. There was a beat of silence as he made his decision. Then the fell energy permeating the room subsided as Jesse's posture and facial expression relaxed a bit. The paranormal force holding the demon to the wall disappeared. With a gasp, it slid down and landed in a heap on the floor.

With a terrible expression he addressed the demon again, "Get out of him now and leave. Come after me again, and I'll make you suffer."

The demon got up slowly, but began to chuckle. Jesse's brow furrowed a bit in confusion. The demon righted itself and dusted its shoulders off in a detached manner. Meeting Jesse's intense gaze once more it smiled in what, if he wasn't very much mistaken, looked like triumph. The demon cocked its eyebrow irreverently as it said, "You can't."

Jesse's gaze darkened considerably. "Maybe you need a reminder." Another tremor rocked the room, cracking the mirror and widening the cracks in the wall tile. The demon raised its hands in appeasement. The tremors subsided.

"Or I should say, you won't." It said matter-of-factly. It seemed quite calm, and Jesse rather thought that the proper reaction to his display of power would be fear. The demon walked forward slowly, but was not as cautious as Jesse would have preferred it to be. After all, Jesse still held all the cards. He was stronger than that demon, any demon to his knowledge.

He held his ground as the demon advanced, and his confidence must have shown, as the demon stopped about three feet from him, just out of easy reach. "You're strong, to be sure. Quite possibly stronger than any of us…but I know your weakness Jess." It chuckled again. "You don't have the juice to kill me…not without tapping into that darkness you try so hard to control."

Jesse stepped forward menacingly and was proudly gratified to see the demon lose the smirk on its face. It did not retreat however. "You sure about that? I don't think you want to test me." He spoke with utter confidence but couldn't help the chill that crept up his spine. The demon seemed just a little too sure of itself for Jesse to ignore.

The demon did not back down a step. "Oh, I'm pretty sure. Takes quite a bit of juice to banish or kill one of us…and I don't think you have the stones anymore Jess. You were a lot harder to deal with when you were a kid." The smirk returned.

The chill intensified. When he was younger it had been easier to use his abilities without succumbing to their influence. Before, he could have ended this confrontation with a single word. But as he got older, as he got stronger, as he grew up alone in the world without anyone to rely on…it got harder to control the dark impulses which at times threatened to consume him.

_It's right. I can't kill or exorcise it using my powers. If I try, I won't be able to hold it back._ Jesse clenched his jaw in frustration.

The demon laughed outright. "So the all-powerful Cambion is a complete pussy! I honestly don't know whether to celebrate or cry. You can't do shit to me without turning dark side, and if you don't I'll beat you into submission and drag you back to the Triumvirate."

Jesse's right fist crashed into the demon's jaw, flinging it sideways into the sink. "Wrong. You think I need all my powers to take you?" He advanced on the demon which actually looked surprised by the sudden attack.

It attempted to back hand him across the face, but he threw his left arm up and took the unnaturally strong blow. He flinched as the demon's forearm bruised his own but continued with his assault. Jesse could handle himself in a fight and had at least twenty pounds on his opponent.

He sent another hook into the demon's jaw, stunning it, and then shoved it against the adjacent wall. He rushed it while he still had the advantage and grabbed it by the throat. Raw power welled up within him, making him forget the minor pain in his bruised forearm, making him forget that he _could_ bruise. He felt absolute, invincible.

The demon's eyes widened in shock as Jesse's fingers tightened around its throat with superhuman strength. He lifted the pathetic creature in his grasp up with his right arm alone, pinning it against the wall, its legs dangling helplessly. It struggled for a few moments, and Jesse felt a light pressure as the demon clutched and fiddled at his jacket uselessly. After a moment the struggling subsided. Kicking, or any other form of opposition would be futile and the demon seemed to sense that.

It laid there, completely in his power once more, its very existence _his_ to allow or deny. He moved very close to the demon, inches from its face. His expression was terrible, and an oppressive aura of power cloaked him. The precipice encroached again, but he ignored it for now.

"Maybe I don't quite know how to control myself yet. But, if you think a worm like you is going to bring me down, think again." Jesse said coldly. The energy in the room subsided somewhat. "You said something about a "triumvirate". Who are they?" He relaxed his grip just enough to allow the demon to speak.

"Gonna use those scary powers on me again? Bring it." Snarled the demon. "You and I both know you can't do shit to me without either killing this meatsuit or surrendering your soul."

"Wrong again. I picked up a few new tricks over the years, and I suggest you begin talking if you don't want to find out what they are." Said Jesse, leveling an icy, self-assured gaze at the creature.

Unease passed across its face, but it remained silent, defiant.

"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica…" Intoned Jesse with an implacable expression. The demon jerked in his grasp, its head twitching to the side as it tried futilely to resist the exorcism. Jesse had memorized the Latin chant months ago when it became apparent that he would one day not be able to use his powers to exorcise a demon.

"Wait." It gasped and Jesse stopped his chant, ready to pick back up at a moment's notice should the demon cease to be compliant. Jesse said nothing, waiting for the demon to begin speaking again.

In a choking, stunted gasp it said, "Some of the oldest and strongest of us…you think you're something kid? You're nothing! They will come for you. They'll find you no matter how far you run. And when they do, they'll kill everyone around you, make you _beg_ for forgiveness."

It would have continued, but Jesse tightened his grip on its throat painfully, silencing it. "I want names, and I want to know how many demons they have working for them as well as how spread out they are. Tell me, and I might let you go." His arm began to tremble, and Jesse clenched his jaw. The precipice was too near to risk keeping up the charade much longer; he was already at the limit and knew it. He relaxed his grip once more to allow the demon to speak.

"You think knowing who they are will help you?" The demon actually had the gall to roll its eyes. Jesse resisted the urge to crush its esophagus.

"Their names…are Baal, Mammon, and Belphagor…together they are the Triumvirate. There are hundreds of us, spread out all over the world. Thousands of years ago they had you kneeling at their feet. Now they're back, and united as one ruling body. They are going to dominate this world , turn it into the new hell." The demon smirked, its black eyes glinting with wicked delight. "And guess what Jess? You are going to be their biggest advantage. You're going to give them the power to annihilate all of our enemies."

"You think I'd ever agree to something like that?" Asked Jesse, an incredulous expression on his face. _I can't do this much longer. I have to let it bleed off._He thought, increasingly worried about the power that continued to well up inside of him. It seemed endless. It took constant effort to hold back the tide, to keep it from swamping him, overshadowing his soul with darkness. But the more fiercely he fought against it, the weaker he became.

The demon chuckled. It seemed genuinely amused by his response. "What makes you think you have a choice, kid?"

Jesse's features hardened with resolve. "There is always a choice. I'd rather die." His grip continued to weaken however. He was out of time.

The demon laughed again. "Sure there is, just like this pathetic meatsuit chose to get ridden by me. Honestly kid, you think we need your consent to use you?"

"Demons have tried to possess me before. It didn't work. What makes you think this'll be any different?"

"The only demons you've met are bottom feeders, less than nothing to the Triumvirate. You think you're invincible? Don't think I didn't notice how much you struggle to control yourself against little ol' me. We're gonna come after you in droves boy. It's only a matter of time."

His power started to fluctuate wildly and Jesse winced at the effort of trying to keep himself under control. He had to end this now.

"Ergo, draco maledicte et omnis legio diabolica, adjuramus te cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque æternæ perditionìs venenum propinare..." He picked up where he left off but he couldn't sustain his grip on the demon. Fighting back a vicious surge of power he shut himself off from it completely. The demon reacted instantly to his loss of power, shoving Jesse away from itself violently. His chant was interrupted and a grunt escaped him as he was thrown backwards with some force.

Taking advantage of the distraction, with a final triumphant smirk the demon leaned back and opened its mouth as the black cloud of smoke that comprised its being exploded out in a billowing mass of evil. The smoke curved sharply upwards and escaped through an air vent. The man slumped and began to fall. Jesse cursed under his breath as he recovered and ran to catch the man before he fell to the floor.

Jesse laid two fingers against the man's neck, feeling for a pulse. It was there, but barely. He turned the man over, cradling his head with his right hand, and laid him gently on the floor.

"Sorry." He muttered, guilt overcoming him. Reaching into his pack which lay a short distance away he pulled out a prepaid phone and called an ambulance to the station.

Recognizing that he had to leave immediately or risk a confrontation with more demons once the one that had escaped managed to sound the alarm, Jesse gathered his belongings and dashed out of the bathroom. He shoved people out of the way as politely as possible as he made his escape. Once out of the station he ran full tilt down the street, turned a couple of corners and entered panting into a Subway drawing interested stares from the customers.

Controlling his breathing as best he could, Jesse walked over as calmly as he could manage and sat at the nearest table that wasn't visible from the street and attempted to collect himself. First he drew on the chaotic energy within, siphoning off just a bit, extending his senses.

He closed his eyes in concentration as his consciousness expanded. After a moment they opened, darkened slightly from the use of his power, his pupils seeming to expand to cover much of his iris. He couldn't sense the presence of any demonic energy, so he was safe, for now. Allowing the trickle of energy he had withdrawn from the maelstrom to recede, he gathered his thoughts.

_I'll need to change cities again, but how? I won't be able to get near the airports and train stations, and the Greyhound's obviously out…I need a car._He thought pensively. Leaving the city was an imperative, but he wouldn't be able to use public transportation now, and he didn't have enough money to rent a car. His powers also weren't a viable option. It had been a long time since he had used enough of his energy to transport himself. That particular ability of his he had a hard enough time controlling.

Using it, he had once transported himself to Australia on impulse, and couldn't figure out how to return to the States for months. If he was going to be on the run from demons, Jesse quickly found out he'd rather do it in his own country. His stomach growled conspicuously. Putting on the aviator shades he kept for when he needed to obscure as much of his face as possible, he rose and got in line. _First thing's first…_


	2. Chapter 2

Preternatural Episode One

"Halflings"

II

Ariel Sanders sat silently throughout the ride to the hotel. She and her twin brother Nathaniel had been summoned to the hotel in downtown Charleston out of the blue. She withdrew a black cell phone from her pocket and opened it to reveal the text message they had received only moments before. Brow furrowed slightly, she read:

_Meet me at the Hampton Inn. 1 Virginia Street West. Leave immediately._

She and Nate had no choice but to comply. Disobedience really wasn't an option with their nameless helper. For years they'd been receiving messages and money from this person, who for some reason was committed to hiding them from their myriad enemies. They weren't completely dependent on his or her assistance, but they had always received help when they'd needed it the most. However, their helper had never once asked them to meet in person, and the suddenness of the change coupled with her inexplicable, but steadily growing sense of foreboding troubled her.

Ari brushed her dark hair out of the way as she rubbed her neck anxiously, staring out of the window of the taxi at downtown Charleston. She glanced over at her brother as he charmed their female driver. His easy smile, and aura of confidence probably helped in this regard, and Nate took every chance to exploit those gifts. She, the more reserved of the pair, preferred to keep to herself for the most part.

"So what's a girl like you do on a Friday night? We should hook up when you get off." said Nate good-naturedly to the driver, a mischievous glint in his brown eyes, their hue even lighter than his warm teak colored skin. His question elicited laughter from the woman, by now used to Nate's running gag. It had been going on long enough to not necessitate a serious response.

Their driver, a nice middle aged woman by the name of Janie Bower, took the compliment as she had all the others – in good humor. Ari smiled in spite of herself as her brother looked her way and flashed an infectious grin. Upon seeing her smile Nate sat back, looking pleased.

_It's about time,_thought Nate as he glanced once more over at his sister. Ari had been in a subdued mood ever since the text message but truthfully, he hadn't seen her crack a smile in what felt like days. Even though they both had undergone some changes since they'd gone off on their own, and despite the fact that as with many twins there were stark differences between the two, their bond had stayed essentially the same.

Something had been really bothering her, and Nate wasn't sure it was just the oddness of their summons that had his little sister down. Whatever the cause, she hadn't shared it with him.

The cab soon pulled up in front of the lobby of the Hampton Inn. "Thanks for the lift Ms. Janie." Nate offered politely with a final smile as he gave the woman her due cab fare – plus tip. He and Ari then exited the vehicle, closing the door behind them.

"You kids take care, hear?" Said the woman as she drove away. The pair turned to face the unassuming hotel building. Nate eyed it with distaste, his mood tempered by their arrival. "Why here? And why couldn't we just do this in our room?" he asked his sister, looking at her once more. Her hair was buffeted by the wind sending it wafting about.

Obviously not feeling that his questions needed a response, or perhaps not having a good one, she pushed forward towards the front entrance taking purposeful strides. Nate sighed and quickly caught up to her, feeling his sleeves for the eight inch bowie knives he always kept there, and that the release catch on the sleeve of his coat still worked. No sense in taking chances.

As they reached the doors Nate reached out and touched his sister's shoulder gently. "Let me go in first. This could be an ambush." She brushed his hand off. "Which is why you need back up. You're not going in there alone." She turned to look at him, her hazel eyes determined, but Nate knew his twin well enough to detect the worry buried within her gaze. She was not going to back down from this.

"Besides, our guy will want to talk to both of us." She added.

"I don't remember him saying that we both had to go in." Nate countered.

"I'm not going to argue with you about this Nate." Ari said firmly.

Nate took a breath. "Look, you're my sister, and I can tell that something's up with you. What's going on?"

Ari was silent for a few moments, crossing her arms and closing her eyes, seemingly collecting her thoughts. "I have a weird feeling about this…I don't know what's going to happen, but I feel like something's about to change."

Ari looked back towards her brother. "I don't think we should separate, we're stronger together. You know that."

Nodding, Nate walked forward and embraced his twin for a moment, releasing her and meeting her eyes. His normally confident and buoyant expression was uncharacteristically serious. "We've made it this far, and we'll do what we've got to do to make it through whatever happens next – together. C'mon." They made their way into the building, casting their gaze around the lobby, warily looking out for obvious threats.

After a few seconds of searching, Ari began to notice a strange throbbing, staccato pulse. Eerily familiar, the invisible ripples passed undetected through the air by all but the twins. Closing her eyes and concentrating on the faint, but oddly recognizable signal, Ari turned her head towards her best guess as to the source and opened her eyes.

In a secluded corner Ari spied a man in a navy blazer, a newspaper obscuring his features. She touched Nate's right arm to get his attention. "There." She whispered as, looking pointedly at the man. As Nate began to move toward him Ari reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him.

Her faced was locked in concentration on the strange but faint energy only she, and to a lesser extent, her brother could sense. "Be careful. He's one of them." Warned Ari. For Nate, no further elaboration was needed. For the twins, "them" were always enemies.

Nate narrowed his eyes and began walking towards the blazer-clad stranger. His smoothly confident gait was that which is usually ascribed to a professional athlete, of one who is utterly confident in his physical ability. Yet a subtly dangerous, threatening undercurrent presented itself in his stride, like an advancing predator. Stopping in front of the man with Ari close behind, he cleared his throat conspicuously.

"Need a cough-drop, Nathaniel?" Asked the smiling man as he folded down the paper, revealing his face. "I'd address you by your name, but I have no idea who you are." Responded Nate bluntly. Then, "Finally getting up on this text messaging game are we? You're a decade or two late, but as they say…"

The man, an attractive twenty-something with perfectly coiffed brown hair and brilliant blue eyes, had the air of a corporate executive and exuded effortless power. Though, that may have had something to do with the fact that this person, whoever he was, was most definitely not human. He chuckled at Nate's comment.

"I've never ceased to be amazed by human ingenuity. But that's another matter. " The stranger folded up his newspaper and laid it aside lazily. "As for who I am, let's just call me Geth, shall we? It's nice to finally meet the two of you in person." Glancing between the twins he broke into a smile, flashing white teeth. "I must say, and not to toot my own horn, you've both grown up nicely."

Seeing their tense and wary stances, he added, "Don't worry, you're perfectly safe for the moment. I am not your enemy. I am the one who has protected you from the rest of my kin these years, a few mishaps aside."

Ari suddenly realized why the signature they had sensed had been so familiar. She had sensed a similar power near to them from time to time over the years, as if it was watching them. They had tried multiple times to confront whoever it was, but each time they got close, it disappeared. For a long time they had not known what to think of it, but after a while they had realized that the signature, whoever it came from, was not a threat.

_So this is our anonymous helper._ Ari thought. She wondered at Geth's strange demeanor. Had she not been able to sense the steady pulse of his otherworldly power she could have sworn that her brother was talking to a human. In the few short, terse conversations she'd had with Geth's "kin" she'd gathered that they were a morbidly serious, almost emotionless lot.

Nate clenched his jaw, biting back a flippant remark. Instead he asked, "Why would an _angel_ want to help us?" He uttered the word angel as if was the worst insult he could come up with. "I was under the impression that our existence was a problem for you guys." Nate fixed the angel with an icy stare. Painful memories of these past two years rose in his mind.

Geth had spoken earlier of "mishaps", meaning when he and his sister had to fight for their lives when angelic hunters managed to track them down. They had lost friends, family…their mother and stepfather. The death, the fear, it was all their doing. Uncontrollable hate for angels, all of them, surged in him.

Ari glanced around surreptitiously, scanning the room for threat of an ambush. Like her brother, she found herself unable to trust the angel. They seemed to be relatively safe here. There were a fair amount of people in the lobby, and their enemies generally avoided public scrutiny when they tried to kill them. Generally.

Geth sighed, as if exasperated by the inquiry. "As a general rule, yes." Piercing blue eyes met Nate's steely gaze unflinchingly. "Nephilim have traditionally posed quite the problem for us."

Nephilim. That word once held no significance for the twins. That changed in one night two years ago. On the morning of their sixteenth birthday, they had awoken to a cacophony of voices in their heads. Their yells caused their mother to come running into their rooms to check on them. She had coached them through the voices, as well as the wild energies within their bodies that threatened to rage out of control, at great personal risk.

Once they calmed down she explained what had happened to them, and that she had been preparing for this since they were born. She told them what they were – half human, half angel. Nephilim. They knew then why their father had never visited them, and why they had grown up without one apart from their stepfather, whom they'd only known for three years.

Their mother had then sent them off to school, but not before giving them each a strange pendant. She told them the pendants were gifts from their father, and extracted a promise from both of them that they would wear them throughout the day. Though disliking these gifts as much as any other their long-absent father had sent them, they obeyed. She then sent the twins off to school as if it were normal day. It was fated to be the last of those the twins would ever experience.

Ari and Nate had returned home that evening to find their house in shambles, their mother and step-father dead, and their life, as they knew it, over. In the aftermath, disgusted that their angelic father had not even intervened to save their mother, they cast aside the amulets and set off on their own after escaping the city.

Nate clenched and unclenched his jaw, bad memories worsening his temperament. "I'll ask again. Why do you want to help us? Won't your boss have something to say about this?"

They had done a lot of research on angel lore. Most of it was frivolous, useless fluff, but they had picked up a few things. One of the things they knew was that angels had an intensely hierarchal, militaristic society.

Instead of answering his question, again, Geth looked towards Ari, "Excellent job locating me by the way, Ariel." Ari said nothing as Geth stood up. He was a couple of inches shorter than Nate, but still taller than her. "Shall we continue this conversation in private?" With that, Geth raised his hand and before either Nate or Ari could react, snapped his fingers. The lobby disappeared.

Nate blinked, and saw what appeared to be a hotel room. _What?_ He thought, bewildered by the sudden change of scene. Casting his gaze around somewhat frantically he spied a notepad by the nightstand that had "The Hampton Inn" printed across the top, verifying that they were, at least, still in the same hotel and therefore presumably in the same city.

He swore viciously as he realized what had happened, angry at not being warned, but more than that, frightened that he hadn't been able to see it coming, let alone stop it from happening.

Ari recoiled from the sudden change in locations, baffled as to how Geth could have managed such a thing. The only time she had seen an angel transport someone, they seemed to have required physical contact. Granted, she'd been fighting for her life at the time, but she'd still assumed that contact was required for those types of abilities. _How did he manage to do this without touching us?_ She thought, fighting her growing sense of fear, despite Geth's apparent good intentions.

The touch of angelic energy that had burst over the twins in order to transport them had been so brief the entire exchange of energy seemed to be over as soon as the sound of Geth's middle finger striking his palm had reached them. In fact, if Ari hadn't had every sense available to her open she might not have detected the blip of energy at all as it left no traces behind, no imprint of its passage or effect in the air around them. She trembled slightly, but stilled herself shortly thereafter, hating herself for showing such weakness.

She recognized the amount of skill it would have taken to accomplish this. If Geth's powers were anywhere near as volatile as her own, the precision and control it would have taken to accomplish such a feat in such a short space of time was nothing less than astounding. She knew this was one foe that she and her brother, untrained in the use of their abilities as they were, would be helpless against if he abruptly decided that he wanted them dead.

Geth appeared unperturbed by the twins' reaction to their new surroundings. There was a faint smile on his lips, as if he had expected it. After giving them a moment to get their bearings, he made a tut-tut sound.

"Really. I expected better of you two. What if I had been an enemy? You would have been obliterated on the spot had I been so inclined…"

"Yeah? Screw you. How're we supposed to defend against something like that!" growled Nate, growing angrier by the second at Geth's presumption. His hands were poised to grab for his weapons if Geth made any movement that seemed threatening. His heart hammered away in his chest in anticipation of a fight.

Geth chuckled at Nate, who glowered at the angel.

"Calm down. I did it to show you what you are up against. There have been…developments of late that necessitate us taking steps. You need to be instructed in the use of your Grace."

"Our what?"

"Grace. The angelic energy that gives you your abilities. I do not have time now to go into detail on that beyond showing you the obvious. There is a more pressing concern before us. You need to…" Nate cut him off.

"Fuck that! We aren't doing anything until you start answering our questions. Who do you think you are? We aren't dogs to order about as you please." said Nate, still incensed.

At once Geth's amused expression hardened. Ari tensed unconsciously, as if preparing for a blow. Until now, Geth's demeanor had been so…human. But now in that brilliant gaze Ari saw an ancient consciousness, the wisdom and experience of untold millennia.

Voice like steel, and with glacial eyes that bored into Nate's the angel replied, "I've watched over you since they day you were born. My brothers and sisters have died by my hand for your sake. You will show me respect, since gratitude is apparently beyond you."

Nate actually seemed taken aback. Visibly chagrined, he swallowed his pride. He diverted his eyes, unable to meet the angel's piercing gaze any longer.

There was a beat of silence before Geth turned to Ari. "Now then," he began in a lighter tone; closer to the one he'd begun the conversation with, "on to business. My superiors have a vested interest in protecting the two of you, even at the expense of our brethren. There is someone new hunting the three of us, and I assure you, he is very good at what he does. I can't guarantee I can hide you from the Host of Heaven in this city any longer. He grows closer by the minute."

He looked back towards Nate who held his gaze this time, grudging respect and the remaining vestiges of embarrassment in his eyes. "So, you will have to change cities immediately. Also," Geth reached into his blazer withdrawing a photo and handed it to Ari. "I will need you, Ariel, to find this man." Ari accepted the photo cautiously and silently analyzed the subject.

The picture looked to have been taken from an older camera phone, or was possibly a blurred still from security footage. She saw a tall, athletic looking youth that looked to be around their age, possibly a little older. He wore a brown bomber jacket over a black shirt and casual jeans. He had deep black hair, in contrast with his light skin. His face was defined by strong features.

She couldn't tell the color of his eyes for those were obscured by sunglasses but she thought she'd be able to pick him out of a crowd. He seemed the type that would stand out regardless of his trying to blend in.

While she looked over the photo Nate protested once again. "Alone? No way. I'm going with her."

"No, you're not. Your sister is obviously better at tracking, and the two of you would draw too much attention if you went together. Also, the target has a reputation for making quick exits, and it would put him more at ease if we were to arrange this meeting one on one."

"Is he dangerous?" Asked Ari, wondering what the angels wanted with the boy in the photo. Was he like Nate and she? Was he a Nephilim? It was the first time she'd spoken to Geth, and he answered her with a slight smile.

"To you, no. Just make sure you let him know that you are only there to ask for help, and offer yours in return. Like you, he has pursuers, and like yours, they are getting close to their target. I think you might find the three of you have much in common."

"Name?"

"Jesse Turner. He's a cautious individual, and quite intelligent for so young a human. Don't let him shake you."

Nate opened his mouth as if to protest more, but Geth held up his hand, silencing him. "There are things you should know. Our latest information puts him in San Francisco. Unfortunately, that city lay in the hands of the enemy."

"The enemy?" Ari asked, curious.

"Well…one of them anyway. There are many, many demons in San Francisco, all out and looking for him. By the way, don't call any taxis while you're there. There's a good chance they've possessed quite a few of them, especially in the area you'll be staying, in order to find the boy."

Demons. Ari shuddered, remembering some of their encounters with the creatures. Unfortunately, angels weren't the only things out there that had it in for them.

"They haven't had any luck I take it."

"No. He has a very effective means of hiding himself from their usual methods of detection, but they are getting smarter. We believe they are using the city grid to track him. Sooner or later he's going to trip up and they will close in and take him. I need you to get there first."

"How am I supposed to find him? That city is huge."

"We have information networks of our own in San Francisco. We happened upon a lead that places him in a five mile radius from where you'll be staying just forty minutes ago. You'll need to leave within the next five minutes to stand a good chance of catching him."

Ari was silent for a moment as she considered.

"You said something about…his signature? Is it like me and Nate's?"

Geth chuckled a bit.

"No. You'll find it a little…aberrant. It should make him easier to locate."

_Aberrant?_ Thought Ari, wondering more and more why the angels were so interested in the boy.

"If he's as easy to find as all that, why can't you or someone else do it?"

Nate flashed Ari an appreciative grin for her cheek. Ari smiled slightly in return, though she was utterly serious. There was something odd about this, and she didn't like the vagueness surrounding the situation.

Geth hesitated before answering.

"We can't. Only you can. Just like the demons, we are unable to detect his energy signature and so far he's done well to avoid public scrutiny."

"Wonderful. I don't suppose you can tell us _why_ you need this guy?" asked Nate dryly.

"No, I can't. "

"Big surprise."

This, Geth simply ignored.

"You said enemies. I understand demons being an enemy for you, but am I right in guessing that the other enemy you're fighting against is other angels?" Ari asked. Was Geth some kind of rogue? Yet earlier he'd spoken about his "superiors", so he probably wasn't alone in this.

Geth's jaw tightened for a moment.

"You are perceptive. Yes. Heaven is at war with itself. But we are running out of time. You have to make a decision."

_A war in heaven?_ Ari thought, perturbed. Now more than ever she had the distinct impression that she and her brother had been relegated to chess pieces, being moved across the board to accomplish a difficult task. Whose game was this? Why were the angels and demons in open war? And who's side was really Geth on? There were so many things she needed to know, but apparently, too little time to get into the details.

Considering for a moment, she decided to ask what she thought was most important.

"Do we have a choice?" Asked Ari quietly, looking directly into Geth's eyes as she asked and wondering if Geth's superiors would withdraw their support if they said no. Geth seemed a little bothered by the query.

"Of course you do. I will not force you, and neither will my superiors. I will still do my utmost to ensure your safety, regardless of your choice. You would have to trust me." Geth gave the two a wan smile.

Ari considered this. It was clear that Geth had the ability to force them to do almost anything if he truly wanted to. They were essentially at his mercy. Also, if what the angel said was true, she and her brother owed him a great deal.

Still, she didn't buy his line about not having enough time to tell them what they needed to know, nor did she think the strange angel's motives were completely altruistic. Did he really expect them to simply march into a city infested with demons to begin a search for the proverbial needle in a haystack without sufficient Intel?

_How am I supposed to get this person to trust me? And what am I supposed to do once I find him?_ Ari thought. Trust would definitely be an issue. Especially considering that she couldn't quite trust Geth's story herself. Could she do this? Trust an angel? So far, they'd only brought misery into her life and the life of her brother.

Nate was silent, watching his sister. His every instinct told him to tell Geth to fuck off, but there was still that nagging guilt. He couldn't help but feel that he and Ari were indebted to the angel in some way. The thought made him angry again, though he hid it well – the only indication a hardening of his eyes and a slight furrow of his brow. _We didn't ask for this. We could have taken care of ourselves,_he thought mutinously, yet the thoughts lacked conviction. And so, he waited to see what his sister would do.

Ari opened her mouth to respond, but even as she formed the words a fork of brilliance split the air above the hotel immediately followed by an explosive clap of thunder. The booming sound reverberated throughout the small room, shaking it with its force. Ari and Nate jumped, surprised by the sudden loud noise, and the oddness of it.

When they had left their room less than an hour ago, the sky had been completely clear. But as they gazed out of the window the sky darkened with unnatural speed, dark clouds forming in the air above the hotel. A wave of Grace fell over the two, stunning them with its intensity. The lights began flickering, some of them burst in a shower of sparks.

Geth stood shock still, wide eyes locked on the growing storm outside. His skin seemed paler than it had moments before, his lips pressed in a tight, grim line. They could feel an energy welling out from the angel, he was doing _something_, but the twins were too unskilled to figure out what exactly that was. Only that it was not directed at them, nor apparently any specific target, but rather it seemed to be expanding to encompass several adjacent rooms.

"That can't be right. Already?" Geth whispered to himself cryptically as he continued to study the storm outside. After a moment however, he relaxed slightly even though immediately afterwards another bolt of lightning rent the air with a sharp crack and a thunderous roar. The storm seemed to swell with anger, as if it had been _thwarted_ somehow; the lightning that flickered through it traced its path through the air frenetically.

"We've been found. It's only Zakkiel, so you shouldn't be too concerned. Him I can handle for a while. I've made sure that he can't figure out exactly which room we're in, but that'll only last so long. We'll need to be gone before he decides to start taking pot shots."

As if in response another bolt of lightning descended from the storm and seemed to light up the sky for miles. They heard a sharp snap, and thunder boomed overhead with a sound reminiscent of an eruption. What the bolt had hit they couldn't be sure, but whatever its target, the lightning had surely destroyed it.

"I need your answer. Will you do this?" Geth asked, eyes imploring.

As he spoke, the sky opened up, and rain began pouring outside in torrents. Ari was stunned. The huge amount of Grace tied up in the storm above them was frightening in its scope and complexity. Ari had never even heard of such a huge application of Grace, not on Earth.

According to what little information their mother had told them, angels were supposed to have difficulties focusing their power on such a massive scale, and they had to rely on physical combat for the most part when acting through a vessel – a human who had agreed to host the angel's spirit. This Zakkiel apparently had no such difficulties, or else had found a way to circumvent them.

Nate reacted by immediately drawing his knives, useless as that might have been. His own power, his Grace as it was apparently called, surged through his body. There was no more need for secrecy, or restraint. He was crouched – tensed and ready to react should the need arise. He said nothing, utterly focused on the storm outside.

Even he could feel a presence above, could feel a point of great energy funneling power into the storm, growing it, shaping it, and directing much of its action. He gritted his teeth. He had to agree with the angel on this, they had to get out of this hotel, fast. And the only way he saw was through Geth's angelic mojo.

"I'll do it. Can you get us out of here?" Ari said quickly, making her decision despite her misgivings. There was something disarming and trustworthy about the angel, and besides, they couldn't be any _worse_ off when they were far away from the pissed off angel right outside could they?

Geth smiled, still relatively relaxed considering the circumstances. "Excellent! Now, there's one last thing…" He was cut off this time not by a new noise, but rather by a conspicuous lack of it. Almost at once the rain ceased beating against the windows, the lightning ceased its frantic trek across the sky, and all was silent.

Their first indication of a problem was the sharp intake of breath and the look of fear in Geth's distant eyes as he fixed his gaze and his full concentration on something neither sibling could perceive.

That alone might have been enough to frighten them if not for the piercing ring that started low, but rose in a crescendo that crested in a pervasive knell that filled them with an instinctive, paralyzing fear.

There was another presence growing closer by the second, this new one far more terrible than any other the twins had experienced, had even dreamt about in their most vivid nightmares. The room, in fact they suspected the entire building, began to quake as Grace of mindboggling intensity crashed down around them, sweeping away whatever Geth had done to hide them as if it were nothing more than a minor annoyance.

The field of energy Geth had created was destroyed in an action that appeared as easy to that presence as blowing out a candle. Nate heard Ari cry out in pain and surprise as the crushing presence bore down on them.

"No!" shouted Geth, panic rising in his voice. Ari and Nate could only stare at each other in horror as they fell to their knees holding their heads. The voices of thousands of angels rose in an inescapable cacophony inside their minds, a sound that was both physical and mental in nature. The ringing had grown unbearable, tinged as it was with the awful energy of the being that had the twins at its mercy by its mere proximity.

Geth was less severely affected. With a strange sound of wings unfurling he was suddenly right between Nate and Ari. Ari looked on incredulously as hair began rising on her forearms. The air was electrified; she became aware of a truly monstrous amount of Grace being focused in the sky above them with alarming speed. With unshakable certainty she knew what was happening, and knew they had seconds before they were smote.

"Find the boy! You'll find everything you need in your room. Don't take any risks and I'll come for you tomorrow." Geth shouted above the rising roar of energy surrounding them.

"Take these, and keep them with you if you want to stay alive." He said as he pressed two small, hard objects into her hands. Nate and Ari felt the light touch of Geth's finger on their forehead just as they saw the room illuminated with a harsh, unearthly blue light…

Nate blinked, and again found himself in a different place. He was panting, kneeling on the floor, hands still clasped around his head, hunched over as if preparing for a blow. Frantically he cast his eyes around and felt intense relief as he saw his sister next to him in a similar position. Geth was nowhere to be found.

He drew upon the raging energy within himself and expanded the range of his senses. He was not as adept as Ari, but he was well up to the task of scanning the area for threats. He could sense nothing within his range, which meant that the building was as safe as it could be. Quickly, if clumsily, he reined in the energy – forcing it back within and closing the floodgates with some effort before something discovered their presence.

"Ari, you okay?" he asked, concerned.

His sister looked dazed as she looked around the room. Nate cursed under his breath. All that Grace, it had overwhelmed him and he wasn't nearly as skilled with that extra sense as was Ari. What must it have been like for her to experience the crushing power of whatever it was that had come after them?

He moved closer and shook his twin. "Ariel! Say something. Are you alright?"

Ari shook her head, trying to clear it. She tried to stand up, but this proved to be a mistake and the soft blanket of unconsciousness enveloped her.


	3. Chapter 3

Preternatural Episode One

"Halflings"

III

Ari woke with a start, sitting bolt upright as she frantically looked around the room. The action exacerbated her mild headache but she ignored the small discomfort and took account of her surroundings. The bed she lay on was of uncommonly fine make. The sheets and comforter looked expensive and as she directed her attention elsewhere she saw that the bed wasn't the only luxury item to be found in the room, which was furnished with impeccable taste.

There was a hotel key on the glass nightstand next to her bed along with what looked like a credit card. She ignored this for now and got out of the bed. The silken sheets flowed around her as she moved off of them and onto the floor, her bare feet sinking into plush beige carpeting. Glancing at the window she gasped in unthinking pleasure and surprise. The San Franciscan skyline glittered like so many gems in the noonday sun. The busy park that her room overlooked was bathed in sunshine and seemed to thrive in its idyllic glory.

Tearing her eyes away from the sight, she became aware of the sound of a TV low in the background. It sounded like it was coming from the next room. She padded across the soft carpet and opened the door into a room that was as immaculate as the view. High ceilings and hardwood floors. Floor to ceiling windows made of smart glass; a grand piano set into the corner. Warm light filled the space, gilding all of the furniture and the pale walls with a golden splendor. Ari, taken aback by the abrupt change in circumstances, didn't know what to make of this.

_Is this really where Geth sent us?_ She thought, wary of being lulled into a false sense of security.

"You're awake." Said her brother's deep, tense voice. Nate lounged on the ultramodern sofa placed before a flat screen set into the wall. That, too, appeared to be smart glass technology. Ari scrutinized her brother. His light brown eyes were glued to the thin glass panel across which was displayed what looked to be the site of a large explosion. He had changed clothes, opting out of the worn jeans and faded tee shirt he had been wearing, and exchanged them for dark designer jeans, brand-new red and black Nike's and a dark blue button-down that looked to be tailored.

"Getting ready for a photo shoot?" Ari teased.

Nate grunted.

"Geth found our wardrobe insufficient." He remarked wryly, for the first time taking his eyes off the news and looking at his sister. "I don't think he gets the whole, "nondescript" thing. The closet, which is obscenely big by the way, is choked with this stuff."

"You know you love it." Ari said with a small smile.

Nate shrugged. "Not denying that I prefer this over faded, musty jeans, tee shirts and sweats…how're you feeling?"

"Better. Where are we?"

"St. Regis hotel…San Francisco."

Ari nodded. She'd figured as much.

"How long was I out?" She asked.

"Not long, actually. You looked like you'd be okay after some rest. I just had enough time to hop in the shower and change…then I saw this."

He grabbed the remote and pressed the volume button. A smartly dressed woman was standing in front of a building that Ari recognized.

"….here in front of the Hampton Inn in downtown Charleston. As you can see the skies are clear, but just moments ago a storm brewed up out of nowhere above the hotel. No video of the brief incident appears to be surfacing, but there are many eyewitness accounts which claim to have seen the strange phenomenon."

The images shifted to show a side of the hotel in which there was a charred and smoking hole. It looked like a meteor had crashed into the place. A chill trickled down her spine as Ari realized that she and her brother had only narrowly escaped the devastation.

"Though only spanning six minutes, the storm lasted long enough to issue what scientists are calling a "superbolt", an unusually powerful atmospheric discharge, which completely destroyed one of the rooms. Everything in room 404 was destroyed, but damage to the adjacent rooms was minimal. The room was registered to a guest, but no injuries have been reported at this time…"

Nate slowly decreased the volume and replaced the remote on the glass coffee table with an audible click.

"We're in over our heads." He said matter-of-factly.

Ari shuddered. Of that there could be no doubt. The difference between the first angel and the second was as night and day. She had never in her life felt so much energy coming from one being. If there were angels that powerful out there, they had very few options left to them.

"What do we do now?" she asked her brother, although she already had an idea.

Nate shrugged again. "Hide under a rock? We can't fight something like that."

"We need help."

"Yeah, well didn't Geth say he wasn't coming till tomorrow? Looks like we're going to have to help ourselves for now."

"We can't keep relying on Geth to save us. He said they've got a new hunter. Someone better. We have to change our strategy. The old one is going to get us killed." Ari said, frowning a bit.

"So, what, we go to angel boot camp? I don't trust this, Ari." Nate said.

"Neither do I, but I don't see any other way. We can't just sit here and do nothing, Nate."

"The hell we can't." he muttered.

"We've got to learn how to defend ourselves properly…I'm going to go look for this Turner person. If the angels on our side need him, I'm going to try to find him."

"Look Ari, I know you agreed to go looking for this Jesse guy or whatever, but if what Geth said is true the trail's probably gone cold by now. It's too dangerous to go out there alone, especially since there are God knows how many demons here. We're better off sitting tight."

Remembering something, she ran back into the bedroom, where they'd appeared after the confrontation with the unknown angelic adversaries, and reached under the bed, retrieving the two pendants that Geth had pressed into her hands. They must have rolled out of her hand and under the bed when she collapsed earlier, unnoticed by Nate.

She walked back into the main room and held them up to the light so that Nate could see. They spun about in the air, held up by black strings draped through her fingers. The faceted surface of the mysterious stones caught the light sending crimson flecks across her body. A strange glyph had been etched into the intricate silver pendant on which the luminous red stones were affixed. Nate's face phased from surprise to anger.

"We threw those in a lake. Freakin' angels man…"

"Geth said that we need to wear these if we want to stay alive. After what just happened do you really want to take chances just to spite him?"

Ari wasn't referring to Geth, though she was certain Nate would rather not have anything more to do with him as well. She had been speaking of their father. They had seen the pendants before. They were the very same ones they had disposed of after discovering their mother and step-father's bodies a little over two years ago.

Without waiting for a response she tossed one of them to her brother who caught it with ease. She draped hers about her neck. He simply stuffed his in his pocket. Ari gave him a look.

"What? It's on me." He said defensively.

Shaking her head at her brother's obstinacy, she turned to leave but stopped, the absence of something giving her pause. She looked back towards her brother who had directed his attention back to the flat screen. _Weird._ She thought. She could no longer sense the faint energy her brother constantly emitted.

Nephilim constantly gave off energy, just as angels and even demons do. In a controlled state it's faint, not something that could be picked up from a distance, but it should still be _there._

With a sense of wonder Ari realized how the pendants worked. Somehow, they were shielding their energy signatures completely. She didn't know how such a thing was possible, but she was grateful for the added protection. Deciding that it wasn't worth bringing up to Nate, whose mood was obviously soured, she left the room and headed into the bathroom.

_If these pendants hide us from detection so well, I wonder why Geth specified that I should go alone?_ She thought. His stated reason was that they'd attract too much attention. That didn't appear to be the case. But she thought she knew the answer already. She could move much more quickly on her own. Also, if Nate were with her, his tendency to be over-protective might get in the way of her doing what she needed to do.

He had been that way ever since their parents died. She knew he in some part blamed himself for their deaths, and had carried that burden with him all this time. She'd told him before that there was nothing he could have done even if he had been there, but she didn't think it had done much good.

She would convince him that there was only one real way to protect themselves and that was to learn how to make the best use of their abilities. They needed Geth's help, and Ari was willing to do whatever it took to make sure that happened. She didn't know how she planned to track down Jesse Turner, or if it was even possible anymore, but she was determined to do so…only after a hot shower.


	4. Chapter 4

Preternatural Episode One

"Halflings"

IV

Five hours after the incident in the Greyhound station, and Jesse still had no way of escaping San Francisco. Worse, he had the maddening sensation that something was watching him, tracking him. He'd never felt anything like it, and though he tried his best, he couldn't seem to pin it down to one location. Trying felt like attempting to force like poles of a powerful magnet together – he'd get close only to have the seeking tendril of consciousness slide aside, missing its target, and he would have to start over.

Jesse realized only now that San Francisco had been a trap. He'd been herded here, and now he knew why. The city was absolutely infested with demons. He'd had a hard time evading them all, and he couldn't escape the eerie feeling that they knew exactly where he was at all times. He would show up to one part of the city and find demons already there looking for him.

With a chill, he wondered if his tracker was helping them, directing them. It seemed likely and if that was the case, he had good reason to be worried. He'd tried to shake him a couple of times. If it was a demon, it must be of a smarter sort than the usual. Still, he had managed to keep a good distance between himself and his pursuer, whose presence he could only feel in an abstract manner. He suspected that if they were in the same room, he wouldn't be able to tell.

_So now they can track me._ Thought Jesse grimly. It did not bode well for him, and he berated himself silently for his carelessness. _How did I let myself get in this situation?_ He thought angrily.

He had lost his pack and most of his belongings earlier in the day trying to evade capture. He had five dollars to his name. It wasn't enough to catch a cab out of the city, but that would be risky business anyway if he was right about their ability to track him. They could probably arrange an accident or two to hamper his progress or hem him in. Once that happened, it was over. They'd make sure to overwhelm him with numbers.

As he walked down the street, he kept his senses open, ready to make a run for it if it looked like an ambush was in the works. The new development of the tracker, coupled with his already darkened mood from the events of this morning and his inability to escape the city showed on his features as he briskly made his way through the crowded streets.

Jesse seemed to exude an aura of menace and it caused those he passed closest to look his way with mild unease. Altogether it was counter-productive. He needed to blend in as well as possible whether they knew his exact location or not. However, there didn't seem to be anything he could do about it. The constant use of his abilities and the stress of trying to evade capture all day left him in a bad mood.

_I can't keep walking around forever._ He cast his gaze skyward, looking into the fading light of the sun. It would be dark soon, and if he had to guess, that's when his enemies would make their move. As he looked on at the receding daylight he became aware of how firmly he was caught. There was only one option left to him, as much as he'd have liked to avoid it.

He could be on the other side of the planet with a thought. He'd have to pick somewhere remote, to give him some time to sort through the…after effects. It would be a while before it would be safe to be around other people again, but that he could handle. However that would solve only one half of the problem. He needed to figure out how they were tracking him.

It felt like a person, and people can be killed. Possessed or not, in his estimation, anyone with the ability and incentive to track him down made them an instant threat, one heretofore unequalled for as long as he'd been on the run. He had too many enemies to have something like that hanging over his head. He resolved to deal with it if he could.

Now with a purpose, he picked up speed, and he knew his tracker would have to work a little harder if he expected to keep up.

* * *

><p>Ari finally sensed that her target had stopped moving, and sighed with relief. It had taken her a long while to find the unique signature Geth had been talking about, probably owing to her inability to immediately set out to the task upon arriving at the hotel. Even after tracking down the signal, she had almost lost him a few times; he seemed to have a knack for staying just inside the range of her ability to sense him.<p>

The way he moved made her think that he had some way of sensing that he was being watched and followed, despite the protective influence of the pendant. It had been a little harrowing, especially when he would unexpectedly hop on a bus in order to increase the distance between them.

She however had an advantage. Using a credit card Geth left them she had hired a professional driver in lieu of a taxi to take her where she needed to go, as per Geth's advice. The company had sent a sleek black dodge with a driver dressed in dark slacks and a white shirt with a jacket.

Ari couldn't help but be impressed that Jesse had been able to navigate the city in such a way as to make the chase a difficult one when he was on foot, even if she had to deal with traffic. But now he was well within the scope of her perception, and she asked the driver to speed up intending to reach his location before he decided to move or worse, his pursuers got to him first.

She focused on the strange signature. Curiously, it managed to be both more subtle and vibrant than that of the human's surrounding it. Geth had been right when he'd told her that she'd find his energy odd but distinctive. A few times she sensed demons lurking near to his location, but each time he seemed to escape them. She was starting to see why Geth might want a person who couldn't be sensed by angels or demons, yet could still sense them himself on his side.

Her driver, Brad, had been a champ throughout the hours-long ordeal, and had even agreed to her request that they not speak to one another beyond directions. It was not any anti-social tendency that caused her to ask for silence – she truly needed it to concentrate. Jesse was hard enough to sense without the added obligation of following a conversation tacked on. Brad had also been okay with driving her around to seemingly endless random places in the city. In reality, she had simply been directing him as best she could in order to get closer to Jesse.

It had been night for some time now. Ari found San Francisco a wholly different place once illuminated solely by the light from windows, street lamps, billboards, and neon signs. She wondered if Jesse had evaded her until dark to make any escape he might attempt that much easier.

She was no fool. She realized that Jesse would most likely think she was a threat. She had to figure out a way to quickly disabuse him of that notion.

As she thought, the cab slowly passed a small bar and grill called Mickey's on the outskirts of the city; a fifty minute drive from the St. Regis hotel.

"I'll stop here for a while. Would you mind waiting here? I'll just be a few minutes." Ari called as the driver parked the nondescript black dodge in the small parking lot outside the restaurant.

He sighed, glancing at the clock. "Look lady, I want to help you out, but…" he trailed off as Ari passed a crisp bill into the front. He accepted it after a moment with another sigh.

"I'll be here." He said gruffly.

"Thank you." Ari said, smiling genuinely into the rear view mirror. Brad returned the smile despite himself.

She exited the vehicle along with the driver who pulled out a pack of cigarettes as he put his keys into his right pocket. She guessed he'd been hankering for one for a while. _I've held the guy captive all day._ She thought guiltily. She resolved to finish this business as quickly as possible.

Ari made her way briskly into Mickey's.

* * *

><p>Jesse looked up from his water, having the impression that something had changed in the calm atmosphere of the room. A mellow song was playing in the background, and all of the customers seemed to be doing the same things they were doing a few moments before when Jesse had swept the room with a cursory glance.<p>

There was a new addition. A girl strode gracefully through the doorway. Her hazel eyes scanned the room. She seemed to be looking for something. Not willing to draw attention to himself by staring, he lowered his gaze back down to his drink. Though, he thought, it wasn't as if he'd have been the only one looking…

He leaned back into his seat. He'd been waiting here for a while, trying to pick out his tracker. He had kept tabs on every new addition, just as he would keep tabs on the new girl. _And for no other reason._ He thought firmly.

He'd picked a seat far away from the door and in a place where he could easily watch the goings-on. He'd spent quite a bit of time scouting out different diners and restaurants that would give him a good vantage point when sitting and had stumbled upon Mickey's by chance.

His senses were open, and he couldn't sense any demonic energy near to him, which probably meant that his tracker hadn't yet decided to follow him here, or send his demon cronies after him. He wondered what their game was. He'd been here for ten minutes, waiting for a change, but so far he'd been left alone. He realized that they could be planning to storm the place, but he very much doubted they'd be able to get to him before he could escape.

So, he was surprised when the girl slid smoothly into the seat across from him, as if they had planned to meet. His mood instantly shifted to cold calculation. Hard, cool green eyes lifted to meet hers as she settled in. They stared at each other in silence, sizing each other up.

The girl across from him was young, around his age he guessed. Dark hair fell past her shoulders. She wore dark jeans and a subtly expensive looking, oh-so-tasteful black jacket over a white tee. She wore some kind of necklace, tucked into her jacket over the tee shirt.

She looked normal. But she couldn't be. Not when Jesse found himself incapable of sensing her even though she sat right across from him. Instead, there was a disconcerting blankness in front of him. His physical senses confirmed her existence, but his other faculties which he'd come to rely on heavily couldn't penetrate whatever she was doing to shield herself.

_So this is the tracker._ He thought darkly as their eyes met. There was a distinct tension between the two of them, marked by their stillness and silence. Jesse wondered if he should simply attack her and get it over with. Considering what he'd been through during the day it seemed like a good idea. Yet something kept him from lashing out. Instead he said,

"Pretty impressive, following me all the way here. Before I kill you, I want to know how you're doing this."

Damn her if she didn't _smile_ after his death threat. A small one, and brief, but still.

"Pretty impressive yourself. You're resourceful dodging all those demons, especially since they seemed like they were following you. As for how I did it…I'm talented. Just like you."

"I'm sure you had nothing to do with that." He said sarcastically. He leaned threateningly over the table. "When will you guys get it through your heads? You can't beat me, you can't trap me. Just give up."

"I didn't, actually. And before you try something you'll probably regret, you should know that I wasn't following you to capture you…I need your help." The girl said seriously, refusing to be intimidated.

Jesse sat back. This ploy was nothing new. Demons had used all manner of methods to ensnare him over the years, and he'd seen things like this too many times to trust it. Still, the girl did not seem at all threatening. Something about her demeanor seemed…serene. She didn't seem threatened by his overt hostility. His eyes hardened, as did his resolve. _That's no reason to trust her. I should just get this over with._ He glanced around surreptitiously, always keeping his target in the periphery, wondering if he could finish her quickly and with as little as possible collateral damage to people or property.

Seeing that Jesse seemed to be weighing his options, Ari seized on the chance to explain as inspiration suddenly broke over her.

"Look, I know this is hard to believe. But you aren't the only one with enemies, and I do need your help. I'm not going to pretend that this isn't incredibly suspicious. My name is Ari Sanders. I'm no demon, and I can prove it."

She slowly reached into her jacket as Jesse looked on with narrowed eyes. His hand lay still on the table, but Ari could tell that Jesse was poised to attack at a moment's notice. She lifted the ruby pendant up out of the jacket and took the necklace off, laying it on the table. She allowed her Grace to course slowly out of her body and waited to see Jesse's reaction. She figured the only way to let him know that she was nothing he'd encountered before was to show him.

The space around the booth they were sitting in seemed to take on an ethereal quality, an energy hummed silently through the air. The pulsations of angelic power went largely unnoticed by the others in the restaurant but for the slightest shiver of recognition at the presence of something perceptibly transcendental.

Jesse blinked as he could suddenly sense a bloom of energy from the girl. His eyes slid to the ruby pendant that she'd just taken off. Somehow, it had prevented him from sensing her, but now he could feel a steady thrum of energy from the girl, _Ari._ He corrected himself. The energy was like light pouring over him in smooth waves.

It felt pure somehow, and unlike anything he'd felt before. Though, he reconsidered, there _was_ something elusively familiar about the sensation. He'd made up his mind to end the threat, but now he wasn't so sure…

_I can't._ He realized grudgingly. _As unlikely as it is, she could be telling the truth._

"I'm not interested in whatever you're selling. But let me be clear. You come after me again, and I will kill you. I don't care if that fancy stone can hide you from me. I don't know whether you're telling the truth or not, but sorry lady, I've got too many problems of my own to take on yours." He said harshly.

He stood up abruptly. Ari looked at him evenly, her appraising gaze sweeping over his body, seeming to take in all that he was with that single glance. Jesse felt a little self-conscious despite himself.

"You know what I think? I think you need my help too. We both know that things are getting bad for you here." Ari said frankly. Immediately after she spoke, she frowned distractedly, as if she just noticed something, and turned her head to look at the door. The steady flow of energy coming from Ari suddenly ebbed, fading away almost completely.

Jesse was taken aback. He needed her help? True, he had almost no money, no safe place to sleep, and no way out of San Francisco that wouldn't alter his personality for months, but Jesse was outraged that this stranger would presume to tell him that he needed help from anyone. He had taken care of himself his whole life, and would continue to do so.

He opened his mouth to retort, but an invisible shudder warped the air in the restaurant as he heard the doors open and shut once again. He whipped his head around to look at who had entered the building. Three men stood there, all of whom were clearly demon-possessed to one with Jesse's perceptive abilities.

Jesse scowled as he saw their true demonic faces, twisted with evil. He turned a murderous gaze on the girl, thinking this was her doing, but when he looked down at where she'd been sitting, he saw nothing. He expanded his mind and sensed nothing. The ruby pendant was gone. He cursed under his breath.

Turning back towards the demons, he saw them making their way towards him as one. Jesse looked towards the back of the restaurant for an escape route, but now that the demons were so close he doubted that he'd be able to make a clean escape. As they drew closer, he weighed his options.

He didn't dare make full use of his powers in the middle of a crowded restaurant. So, the confrontation would be physical. Outnumbered, there was only so much he could do. He couldn't successfully subdue all three especially since he could hardly hold all of them down to exorcise them as he had tried to do with the Greyhound station demon.

There was only one way out of the situation he'd gotten himself into. As he drew on the seething darkness within, his power welled up and out, darkening the room and causing the other customers to look around in confusion as the lights began flickering intermittently. Jesse gritted his teeth from the strain of holding himself in check.

The worst part was the exultation. When he used his powers it filled him with a dark unthinking joy, and he guiltily reveled in the sensation. It left him wanting, seeking more. Each use stoked the ever-present hunger. The demons stopped where they were, seeming unsure of what Jesse was about to do.

_They don't know._ Jesse realized. They didn't know he had the ability to teleport much as they were able to. Or perhaps they simply didn't know he had enough of a mastery over his powers to manage it? Even the demons, his creators, were in the dark about what he was really capable of.

As he was about to make his move, a lithe figure sneaked quietly through the front doors. The pendant hung about her neck.

Ari held a finger to her lips, signaling Jesse to not reveal her presence. Jesse immediately flicked his gaze back to the middle demon, so as not to give her away. _What's she doing?_ He thought, confused. He had assumed that she'd been sent here to stall and distract him so that her partners could close in, but now it seemed she had slipped out the back and circled around to the front to sneak behind them.

Still, she didn't even have a weapon in hand. What did she plan to do against three demons?

In the next few seconds, Jesse looked each of the demons in the eye. One was dressed professionally, one was dressed in casual clothing, and the other looked like he'd been sleeping in an ally. They were all burly.

"Congratulations, you found me. Now what?" Jesse asked sardonically.

"You come with us. The Triumvirate has need of you." Said the one in the dark suit.

"Come easily, and we will refrain from attacking these bystanders." Said the raggedly dressed demon.

Jesse tensed and narrowed his eyes. He hadn't considered this fully, much to his chagrin. He was not swayed however. If he were susceptible to emotional blackmail of that nature, he would have been caught years ago. He couldn't allow that to happen, or all the people over the years who had protected him from that fate would have died in vain. Still, he needed to figure out how to get these people safely out of harm's way.

That proved to be unnecessary. The clanking, rattling sound of a fire alarm suddenly filled the place, jarring the customers and causing them to quickly begin to stream out of the building. Jesse stared the demons down during all of this, wondering if the alarm was Ari's handiwork.

The owner behind the bar looked around in confusion as his guests rushed to leave. Looking towards the only cluster of people standing still, he saw the casually dressed demon turn its head to look at him abruptly, a small, sinister smile on its lips. Its eyes turned black as pitch as he watched. The owner, Mickey if Jesse were to venture a guess, turned pale as a sheet and followed the last of his customers out of the door. With his exit, they were alone. The jarring sound of the fire alarm persisted.

At this point Jesse didn't know what to believe. His mind told him not to trust any of it, that all of this had been set up. Yet some instinct directed him to trust Ari. Whatever her intentions after this, for the time being it seemed he could count her as an ally.

Two of the demons looked around warily during the mad rush to the door, but the middle one never lost sight of Jesse. He stepped forward once they were alone and Jesse could tell they were done playing games. He had just enough time to raise his arm as the demon suddenly made a backwards swatting motion, as if batting something annoying away. Jesse felt an invisible force slam into him, but he had been ready. With a burst of his own, Jesse canceled out the thrust of the demon's attack.

The conflicting demonic energies burst out in a pulse with a strange, muffled _wumpf_ sound that disturbed the air, shattered glass, and threw unanchored objects far away from the combatants with enough force to knock a grown man off his feet. Jesse and the demons stood resolute throughout the disturbance. Debris littered the floor around them.

Jesse cautiously lowered his arm, which judging from the pain was as bruised as his other one. His eyes fell on Ari whom he suddenly noticed crouched five feet behind the middle demon. Jesse had no idea where she'd come from. She seemed to have a way of moving without drawing any attention. The demons seemed not to notice her, and if they did, they did not consider her a threat. She fixed him with a look filled with hesitation after his display. She looked at Jesse as if she were unsure that _she_ could trust _him_.

In that moment, Jesse made up his mind. He fixed the demon that had attacked him with a cold stare.

"That the best you've got?" He challenged.

The middle demon was not amused by this, and directed its companions to step forward. Jesse locked eyes with Ari and nodded once, almost imperceptibly. Recognition and understanding passed between them as green eyes met hazel.

Ari suddenly sprang forward, sweeping the middle demon's right leg out from under him as she landed a strike to its back that sent it staggering forward, towards Jesse. Jesse seized on this opportunity and landed a strong right hook into the demon's jaw. Still raw from the experiences of the day, he relied solely on his own strength and was rewarded when the already unbalanced demon fell over, stunned by the sudden attacks.

The other demons abruptly turned to face Ari, solid black eyes shining inhumanly as they assessed the new threat. Not sparing a moment, Ari spun around and quickly planted a foot in the chest of the raggedly dressed demon. As he saw the attack, Jesse couldn't help but worry. It seemed far too weak to do much damage to a man that size, let alone one who was demon-possessed.

The huge demon grunted as it was lifted off the ground by the force of the blow, falling across the table directly behind it, rolling off the opposite side where it landed in a heap on the floor. For a second, Jesse was stunned. _How does she pack that much force into that small frame?_He wondered. It seemed not unlike his ability to augment his strength, and even in the heat of battle Jesse was left wondering what more there might be to the girl's abilities.

Regaining his wits, he tackled the casually dressed demon which was about to pounce on Ari while her back was turned. He began to pummel the demon with his fists which were quickly becoming bruised and torn, but it would not be long before the demon retaliated.

Since the raggedly dressed demon was still picking itself up from the floor, and Jesse was in the process of taking care of the demon at her back, Ari turned her attention to the professionally dressed demon, her driver. She couldn't help but feel overwhelming guilt. She had brought him into this danger, and she had no way of helping him escape from the creature that had taken hold of his body. The demon wearing Brad stood up, dusting itself off primly.

"You have something I need." She called, taking a step forward. She tried to remember all that Nate had taught her about fighting. Before they had turned sixteen, her brother had been a nationally ranked champion in mixed martial arts, karate and judo. He'd passed a lot of what he'd learned to Ari to give her an edge when fighting people larger and stronger than her.

The demon smirked salaciously as it advanced. "Oh, is that right? Maybe I can help."

Jesse suddenly felt a fist impact with his left cheek, then the opposite side of his neck with stunning force. He was launched off of the demon and hit his head against a table. Dazed from the blows to his head he tried to clear it as the demon loomed over him with a murderous expression on its twisted face.

Drawing back its heavy fist, it threw a vicious right hook. There was a loud smack of flesh against flesh. The demon looked on in surprise as it saw its fist encased in Jesse's slightly smaller hand. Jesse stood up slowly as ebon energy coiled away from his body. He locked blackened eyes with the demon before suddenly changing his grip and compressing its hand with his own.

The sickening sound of crunching bones and the pained yell of the creature filled the room as it yanked its crushed hand away. Jesse's fist crashed into the side of the demon's face yet again, causing it to stumble away from him, blood spewing copiously from its ruined mouth.

Jesse turned to look at the raggedly dressed demon. His eyes were completely dark now. No sliver of green outlined his irises. It was as if his pupil had expanded to envelop his iris, though his sclera remained white. The raggedly dressed demon seemed to be considering how best to approach him.

The demon facing Ari watched her with amused eyes. Ari smiled sweetly. Her one advantage? Demons had no idea of her physical capabilities. It probably thought she was fully human, considering that it had missed what she'd done to its companion. She launched herself at the thing with speed that should have been the sole province of demons, angels, and other beings part of the supernatural world.

Unprepared for the speedy attack the demon took her first blow to his stomach. Shortly afterwards he seemed to get his bearings and retaliated with a right handed jab of his own. Ari neatly twisted out of the way of the attack, grabbing his arm with her left hand and with a tactical burst of her Grace, quickly spun around and precisely hooked her leg behind the demons knee. She pulled, using her weight and solid stance to push the unbalanced demon over onto its side.

The two combatants landed with a thud. Her main goal accomplished Ari deftly reached into the demon's right pocket and withdrew the car keys she'd known were there, rolling away before the demon could buck her off. There was a tug on her neck as she felt the cord holding the pendant snap. The demon must've grabbed it during the scuffle. As she rolled, she winced as jagged shards of glass tore into her forearm and lower back as she put some distance between herself and the demon before springing to her feet.

She turned around and saw one of the demons recovering from an attack and the other still standing where she'd kicked him across a table. She regretted losing the necklace – it was the most effective way of hiding her strange aura from the supernatural world. Her eyes flicked to Jesse. They'd done well so far, but if they kept fighting they'd be overwhelmed, and even now she could sense other demonic presences quickly approaching. This was not a win scenario. She dashed forward, running past Jesse.

"Lets go!" She called over her shoulder, but did not look to see if he was following her. She quickly navigated the scattered debris between her and the exit, bursting through the glass doors and running out into the parking lot, Brad's keys still clutched in her hand.

Jesse hesitated for a second, then turned and followed, running behind the strange girl, eyes slowly beginning to regain their green coloring as much of the dark powers he'd been drawing on receded into the depths of his being. It was the second time he'd approached his limit in 24 hours. The strain had mentally and physically exhausted him and he didn't know how much longer he and Ari could have held out.

Looking behind him as he burst through the doors after her Jesse threw his hand back, telekinetically shoving the doors closed and holding them there. The demons crashed against it, pummeling it with their fists, snarling their rage as their prey escaped them. Jesse thought they were in the clear for precisely two seconds.

All three demons drew back and threw their hands out. The doors exploded outwards in a spray of deadly-sharp shards of glass. The crowd yelled as the slicing projectiles broke over them causing several injuries. Jesse reacted late, and before he was able to erect a shield around himself the shards caused some shallow cuts to his hand and face, even as he turned and followed Ari in earnest. The maneuver had bought them precious few seconds.

The demons tore through the ruined doorway and sprinted full tilt after the pair causing more screams from the crowd as they were bowled over by the demons forcing their way through.

Ari made straight for the black dodge, flowing easily through the panicked customers still milling about as the sound of sirens filled the air. Unlocking and opening the door she slid into the driver's seat, jammed the key into the ignition and turned, starting the engine while shutting the door. Right behind her, Jesse dashed around the side of the car and threw open the passenger's seat door. Before he was even fully in the vehicle Ari threw it in reverse and slammed the accelerator.

The passenger door shut with a loud thud as the black dodge backed out of the space scattering the bystanders, and Ari twisted the wheel madly causing the car to spin leftwards. Straightening the wheel, she slammed the accelerator again, careening out of the parking lot as the demons raced behind the vehicle close enough to touch it for a moment before falling behind. The pair pulled further and further away as they shot out into the night.


	5. Chapter 5

V

Breathing labored, the pair sat in silence as Ari put more and more distance between them and Mickey's. Jesse took stock of his injuries. He had a headache from almost being knocked out by the demon and hitting the table. There were bruises and abrasions on both of his arms, but without taking off his jacket, he couldn't assess their seriousness.

He could feel a bruise forming on the right side of his neck, accompanied by one on his left cheek. He moved his jaw around and bit back a groan as his face and neck protested the movement. There were cuts on his hands and face from the debris from the glass doors as well as the rigors of the fight. He flexed his hands, and winced slightly as some of the cuts opened up. He slid his eyes over to Ari, wondering what to make of her.

Ari ignored the steady throbbing pain in her forearm and a lesser one in her back, more than a little on edge. That confrontation had been far more than she had prepared for. Her gaze flicked to Jesse who averted his eyes, staring stoically out of his window. He was completely still. Her eyes cataloged his injuries, noticing a couple of dark, ugly bruises forming on his pale face and neck. They seemed to cause him some discomfort but…

_Is he some kind of demon?_ Ari wondered cautiously as she turned her eyes back to the road. What had initially been hidden by the uniqueness of his aura had been thoroughly revealed during the course of the fight. His aura had always had an undercurrent of darkness, but only when it was brought up to the surface did she sense how similar it was to demonic energy.

But why would Geth send her after a demon? He'd said Jesse wasn't a danger to her, but he also hadn't told her he had demonic powers. She didn't know what to do with this new information. Demons couldn't be trusted. Period. Did the fact that Jesse's aura was at least a little different from a normal demon's mean that he was completely unlike them in other ways?

Jesse was similarly conflicted. He glanced at Ari again as she pulled into a nearly deserted downtown lot and parked, shutting off the engine.

"Thank you, for what you did back there." He said in a burred voice.

Ari looked towards him once again and found that he was staring seriously into her eyes.

"You're welcome." She said guardedly in return. There was so much she needed to know.

He was still looking at her, and his gaze had turned piercing.

"I am grateful. But it's a pretty big coincidence that demons showed up right after I refused your request." He said pointedly.

She was not angry, or even surprised. It was a fair concern in Ari's mind. After all, she'd sensed him dodging demons all day. Then she'd caught up with him at Mickey's, and shortly after that, they'd been ambushed. He had probably cultivated a very healthy paranoia.

She turned to look at him. "I guess you're going to have to trust me. I don't know how the demons keep finding you. As far as I know, I'm supposed to be the only one who can."

Jesse wondered why that was. _What is she?_ She seemed sincere, and if her goal was just to get him caught, she could have simply not interfered with the demons. He decided to believe her, as incredible as the situation was for him.

"Then how…" he wondered aloud. He knew how to navigate a city with San Francisco's advanced infrastructure without drawing attention. He knew how to stay off the grid. So how were the demons finding him so easily if they couldn't sense his location? Something nagged at him, he felt like he was missing something.

"We can't use this car anymore." Ari said suddenly, interrupting Jesse's thoughts. She opened the door and stepped out, looking around cautiously before pulling out a black phone, quickly dialing a number. Jesse also exited the vehicle, and expanded his senses, watching out for any blips of darkness in his perception.

After a short conversation and a glance at a nearby street sign, Ari hung up.

"I have a place for us to go to figure this all out. I called a cab." She said, her tone still a little guarded. She ignored Geth's advice about taxis only because she had no desire to call the driving agency she'd used before. Especially after what'd happened to Brad. And, she reasoned, she should be able to sense whether the driver was possessed from a pretty good distance away.

Ari leaned against the hood on the opposite side of the vehicle. Now that she'd put up the phone, seemed content to stare off into the night until they were picked up.

Jesse put his hands inside of his pockets and did the same, unsure what to say or ask of his mysterious new ally. He agreed that they needed to go somewhere to talk. There were too many unanswered questions hanging in the air between them.

They had their backs to each other, an implicit recognition of hard-won trust. They owed that much to one another after the incident at Mickey's.

He understood why they'd come to this secluded lot and stuck close to the car. Here they could sense threats of a demonic nature in time for them to get back in the dodge and get away before they got too close.

This close to her, he could feel the steady pulse of that strange force which emanated from her body. The sensation seemed as natural as feeling a heartbeat. She seemed to radiate tranquility. After a few moments, something occurred to Jesse and he turned slightly, looking at Ari directly.

"That phone you used. It was prepaid?" he asked a little lamely. Ari seemed like the type to cover her bases, but Jesse hadn't lasted so long by taking things at face-value.

Ari turned slightly to look over her shoulder at him briefly, a small smile touching her lips. Jesse had to repress the urge to respond in kind. He blinked. He hadn't had the urge to smile in what felt like a very long time. He told himself it was only because he'd just escaped a very hairy situation, and thrill of the escape was making him giddy.

"You don't have to worry. It's not bugged." She said.

Jesse stopped short as ice slid through his veins. Bugged. A wisp of memory swirled through his awareness unbidden, a series of brief sensations. The light pressure of the Greyhound station demon seemingly trying to grasp hold of something on his jacket as he'd held it against the wall by its neck. Its sly expressions, like it had won some kind of victory. Light pressure right around…

"What's wrong?" Ari asked, frowning a bit. She stood up and glanced around, looking for a threat.

Jesse didn't answer, but his hand slowly trailed up to press against his left jacket pocket. He pressed down and felt a small irregularity, a small lump that he couldn't remember being there before. With quick, efficient movements he yanked off his jacket and thrust his hand inside the pocket, fishing around for something. Ari looked on carefully.

He drew his hand out, pinching a small metallic button. Jesse had never seen it before in his life. It was small enough for him not to notice had he not been looking for it, but only almost innocuous enough for him to discount. He dropped it and stepped on it, grinding it on the ground with his heel as he put his jacket back on. He heard the unmistakable sound of electronic equipment being mistreated.

He removed his foot. All that remained of the strange tracking device were small pieces of circuitry.

Ari walked around the car to look at what he'd been doing. Seeing the remains of the device on the ground, understanding passed over her features as she looked up towards Jesse.

"I guess we should call another cab." She said lightly.

Jesse nodded. The risk was too great. They also had to move immediately. As they left the car and parking lot behind, Jesse couldn't help but feel a strange sense of luck that he'd found the tracking device at all. He did not check his pockets regularly, and demons had never used such mundane methods to hunt him before.

What would have happened if that brief conversation with Ari hadn't taken place? He might not have discovered it in time.

As they walked to a safer location, Jesse dwelled on his growing sense of foreboding. The coincidences kept piling up.

* * *

><p>Minutes later, a black limousine pulled up to the deserted parking lot. The three demons standing around the nondescript black dodge in the empty lot looked toward it at the same time. The driver of the limousine exited the vehicle and walked around to open his passenger's door.<p>

A man stepped out, dressed in a black military style coat. He was dark haired, with equally dark, flat eyes. A starched white shirt, dark slacks, and expensive looking shoes completed the grave ensemble. He walked over to stand before the three demons. His eyes shifted down, seeing the remains of the tracking device which had proved both effective and useless during the course of the day.

The man looked up, coolly assessing his three demonic subordinates.

"So he has escaped us again." The man remarked calmly, his deep gravelly voice and angular features carefully even.

One of the demons, for now wearing a meatsuit dressed in business attire spoke up.

"We would have the boy even now, but someone intervened."

He held up a strange ruby pendant clutched in his hand.

"She wore this. We assumed she was just another meatsack."

"Yet you had many other opportunities to capture the boy while he was still unaware of Nergal's device did you not, Ronwe?" the man responded, still even-toned, even as he casually took the necklace from the outstretched hand, turning it over, and holding it up to the light of a nearby street lamp.

The creature possessing Brad hesitated for a moment, an almost imperceptible tensing betraying the source of its discomfort.

"The boy is both powerful and resourceful, Baal." Ronwe responded carefully.

"Then it appears I must take this matter in my own hands." Said the demon lord dangerously.

Ronwe stepped backwards, alarmed. It was not a decisive enough action. Just as Ronwe thought to escape the meatsuit, and had opened his mouth to do so, Baal's hand flashed upwards, delving inside of his coat and darting out in one smooth movement. There was a burst of demonic energy as something flew with unnatural speed from Baal's hand straight into the chest of Ronwe's meatsuit.

Ronwe's entire body seemed to light up within. The demon screamed inhumanly as its dark existence finally ended. The light faded away. Brad's body fell backwards next to his car, his sightless eyes staring into the night.

"That was one failure too many. Take heed of Ronwe's fate, for the same will await you should you repeat his mistakes." He said in a normal tone, addressing the remaining demons.

Baal advanced calmly. To their credit, Ronwe's companions stood their ground as the wrathful lord leaned over and grasped the knife, sliding it smoothly from the chest of his latest victim.

Baal slowly licked the length of the runic knife several times, cleaning the blood from it before placing it back in his coat. He once again held the strange pendant up to the light, a small smile playing about his reddened lips.

"It has been millennia since I've seen this." He remarked. He then turned abruptly on his heel, his long coat flapping with the sudden movement, helped along by the wind. He walked back towards the limousine, where his driver waited with an open door. The raggedly dressed demon and the casually dressed demon were gone quite suddenly, reacting to Baal's unspoken dismissal.

Baal entered the limousine, still inspecting the ancient pendant with an amused expression. There was only one being in existence that it could have come from. The greatest and most ancient of his many foes.

"Well played old friend." He muttered to himself cryptically as his driver closed the door and pulled out of the lot.

Baal turned his head to look out at the dark city which lay almost completely in his grasp. Effortlessly, he expanded his senses, scanning the auras of beings for miles around. There were too many, even for a demon as practiced as he, to sift through to find the aberration without some idea as to its location. It was far too faint for that.

The Halfling girl seemed to be doing an excellent job of controlling her volatile energies, even without the pendant. Considering for a few moments, Baal decided on his next course of action. He would bring to bear every modern technology and arcane art available to him to find the strange girl. With her, came the Cambion.

If a human stood in his way, he would have them possessed. He would have every law enforcement officer in San Francisco possessed if it proved necessary. He could do it with impunity. The angels had no power here. Baal smiled dangerously.

He knew exactly what he was dealing with, why Ronwe and his subordinates had been so taken by surprise by the mysterious girl. _Like father like daughter I suppose…_Thought Baal, amused.

Unlike her half-demon companion, she could not long evade him. Her strange power was impossible to fully veil from those who knew what to look for. It was time to hunt a Nephilim.


End file.
